GVSU opens debate on smoking policy

Chronicle News Service/Dave RaczkowskiGrand Valley State University's first public forum addressing its campus smoking policy was sparsely attended. At left, Bart Merkle, Dean of Student Affairs, and Scott Richardson, Associate Vice President of Human Resources, listen to the concerns of the group, made up of mainly non-smokers.

ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP -- The idea of a smoke-free campus, or creating designated smoking areas farther away from its buildings, were some of the ideas floated at Grand Valley State University today as a small group of students and staff met to discuss possible changes to the school's smoking policy.

Currently, lighting up inside GVSU's buildings, including restaurants, is prohibited, but people may smoke near academic building entrances, where ashtrays are available. Smoking in and around dorms is prohibited.

The ideas from today's forum could help an ad hoc committee come up with a revised smoking policy for the school.

It became an issue after GVSU refused to follow Ottawa County's new nonsmoking rules, which require ashtrays be placed 25 feet from building entryways.

Just after today's forum ended at the Kirkhof Student Center, sophomore Jon Williams, 20, lit up outside the campus' library.

Chronicle News Service/Dave RaczkowskiGrand Valley State University student, John Calley, finishes a cigarette outside of GVSU's Kirkhof Center on Monday. Calley disagrees with the idea of a campuswide smoking ban. "It's ridiculous; it's a matter of personal choice," he said. "It would be extremely unfair to the smokers on campus."

"I think they should leave it as it is," Williams said of the school's policy as he finished his Camel and dumped it in an ashtray near the library's entrance.

Having a sheltered area where smokers could gather did not seem like a great solution to him.

"You could do it, but it's kind of ridiculous," he said.

At the forum, talk centered around offering smoke-secession programs, enforcement ideas and where to place ashtrays.

Laurie Witucki, a chemistry professor and member of the committee, said most of the professors she has talked to advocate for a smoke-free campus.

But Dean of Students and Vice Provost Bart Merkle, who co-chairs the committee, warned that smoke-free would mean different things, depending on which GVSU campus it would affect.

While at GVSU's downtown Grand Rapids campus, students only would have to move to the sidewalk to smoke off-campus, but those at the Allendale Township campus would have to hike to Lakeshore Drive on one end of campus or 48th Street on the other end to take their puffs.

A second forum on the issue will be held Thursday at GVSU's Grand Rapids campus.

The committee hopes to have a recommendation for the college by early March.